10 Immunity Boosting Recipes – Minimise the risk of Viruses and Infections

The global pandemic outbreak has proved one thing – healthier people are always best equipped to keep contagious infections at bay because they have robust immune systems. At the same time, it has also shown that people with an unhealthy lifestyle have their immune systems compromised, and they are the most vulnerable to virus attacks.

You are what you eat. Healthy people always eat healthily. Therefore, this is the best time to turn things around and get fit. To keep you strong and get going, we are here to share the top 10 recipes which will boost your immunity and help you stay healthy.

1. Colourful Vegetable Soup (Rich in Vitamin C)

What’s more savoury and nourishing than a tasty vegetable soup? This soup has all the goodness of vegetables like onions, carrot, capsicum, and cabbage. It has healthy spices like ginger and garlic. This colourful soup packs all the essential nutrients, and it dominates with the very much needed vitamin C.

Ingredients:

• Oil – 2 tbsp
• Garlic -1 tbsp (chopped)
• Ginger -1 tbsp (chopped)
• Green chillies – ½ tbsp (chopped)
• Spring Onions – ¼ cup (Finely chopped)
• Carrot – ¼ cup (Finely chopped)
• Capsicum – ¼ cup (Finely chopped)
• French Beans – ¼ cup (chopped)
• Sweet Corn – ¼ cup
• Water – 3 cups
• Black Pepper – ½ tsp
• Salt to taste
• Oats Flour – 1 tbsp
• Lemon Juice – 3 tbsp
• Fresh coriander – ½ cup (chopped)

Directions:

Add oil to the pan. After it’s heated, add ginger, garlic, green chillies, and onions. Mix them well, and saute on a medium flame for 1 minute. Now, add carrot, capsicum, french beans, and Sweet Corn. Mix them well, and saute on a medium flame for 1 minute. Add water and let the veggies boil for 2 minutes. Add black pepper and salt and cook for 1 minute. Now, add water to a cut of oats flour and mix it well to form a smooth paste. Add this paste to the boiling soup. Add lemon juice and coriander and cook for 2 minutes. That’s it, it’s now hot and ready to serve.

2. Rich Tomato Garlic Soup

Garlic packs all the powerful antiviral compounds, and it’s one of the best when it comes to nourishing you with its virus-fighting properties. This heart-warming tomato garlic soup features ten garlic cloves to iron-shield your immunity.

Ingredients:

• Butter – 1 tbsp
• Oil – 1 tbsp
• Garlic cloves – 10, minced
• Onions – 2, sliced
• Tomatoes – 4, peeled, cored, chopped and seeded
• Beef broth/Vegetable broth – 1 ¾ Cup
• Salt – 1/4 tsp
• Black pepper – ¼ tsp
• Sugar – ½ tsp
• Tomato sauce – 1 cup, low sodium
• Dried thyme – 1 tsp
• Fresh parsley – ¼ cup minced

Directions:

Add butter and oil to a non-stick pan, and heat them over a medium flame. Add onion and garlic, and saute them till they turn soft and golden. Pour in beef broth/vegetable broth, and add tomatoes, bay leaf, tomato sauce, thyme, salt, sugar, and pepper. Allow them to boil and turn down the heat to simmer and cover the soup for 15 minutes. Discard the bay leaf and add parsley. Your creamy garlic tomato soup is ready to taste.

3. Breakfast Smoothie with Fruits, Oats, and Peanut butter

This healthy and filling smoothie hosts a variety of highly nutritious ingredients, starting with bananas and blueberries, rich in antioxidants. Yoghurt, rich in probiotics, promotes healthy digestion. Turmeric, ginger, and pepper are immune system boosters with anti-inflammatory properties. Oats are a good source of complex carbs and fibre, and peanut butter is a healthy source of fats and protein. This combination of ingredients provides complete nutrition with all the essential macro- and micro-nutrients.

This is an excellent recipe for people with a thyroid condition.

Ingredients:

• Peanut butter – 1 tbsp
• Greek yoghurt – ¼ cup
• Almond milk – 1 cup
• Bananas – 2
• Blueberries – ¼ cup
• Ginger – 1 tbsp, chopped
• Pepper – 1 tbsp
• Turmeric – 1 tbsp
• Oats – ¼ Cup
• Peanut butter – 1 tbsp

Directions:

Place all the ingredients in a blender, give it a hard spin till it reaches a smooth consistency. Add ice while blending, if you like.

4. Yummy Mushroom Omelette

We all know that eggs are a great source of protein, with all the essential amino acids. Eggs are rich in B vitamins and Sulphur, which is a crucial ingredient for boosting immunity. They also contain iron, folate, and selenium. Combine this superfood with mushrooms which are rich in prebiotics, and you get an excellent immunity pumping breakfast to start your day.

Ingredients:

• Mushrooms – 50 grams
• Eggs – 2
• Garlic cloves – 3, chopped
• Onions – 1 tbsp
• Pepper Powder – ½ tbsp
• Chilli flakes – ½ tsp
• Coriander

Directions:

Break eggs into a bowl, add salt, pepper, and coriander and whisk them well. Heat a pan with olive oil, add garlic, onion, and fry them till they turn pink in colour. Add mushrooms and cook till the water from the mushroom evaporates. Add chilli flakes, salt, and cook for 2 minutes. Add pepper, coriander, mix it well and set aside to cool. Pour beaten eggs into the pan with hot oil/butter, cover, and cook for 2 minutes. Add mushrooms to one side of the omelette and wrap it up. Hot and ready!

5. Kimchi Fried Rice

A healthy gut produces a robust immune system. This delicious recipe is just going to do that. Intestinal flora, the microorganisms in your Gastrointestinal tract, help in healthy digestion and prevention of diseases. They also aid in metabolizing toxins, reducing inflammation, and promote immune homeostasis. Kimchi, a fermented food, is packed with raw probiotics and is super healthy for your gut. You can use egg in place of Tofu or Paneer.

Ingredients:

• Frozen Vegetables (Carrots, Peas, and Corn) – 1 cup
• Spring Onion Stalks – 4, chopped
• Baked Paneer/Tofu Cubes – 150 to 200 grams
• Vegetable broth – ¼ -½ cup
• Brown rice – 2 Cups
• Soy sauce – 2 tbsp
• Kimchi – ¼ Cup
• Sesame seeds (optional) – 1 tsp

Directions:

Heat a pan with vegetable broth, add frozen vegetables and spring onion stalks, and heat them. Add just enough broth to cook the vegetables. Add brown rice and soy sauce and pour in little vegetable broth if needed. Add tofu and cook until it’s heated. Turn off the heat and stir in Kimchi. Add toasted sesame seeds for toppings and serve.

6. Lemon Pepper Chicken

Who doesn’t love chicken? Given you are a non-vegetarian, of course. We love our chicken in many forms. This tangy lemon pepper chicken, prepared with a host of ingredients and spices, is excellent to boost your immunity. Dominated by Vitamin C from lemon, probiotics from yoghurt (curd), anti-inflammatory, and antiviral properties from ginger, garlic, and pepper, and protein from chicken, it just makes for a healthy, delicious meal.

Ingredients:

• Chicken – 1 K.G

Marination:

• Lemon juice – 1 tbsp
• Salt as per taste
• Black pepper powder – 1 tbsp
• Ginger garlic paste – 1 tbsp
• Yoghurt (Curd) – 1/2 cup

Cooking:

• Oil- 3 tbsp
• Bay leaves – 2
• Black peppercorns – 4
• Chopped garlic – 1 tbsp
• Ginger – 1 tbsp
• Salt as per taste
• Green Chilli – 4
• Black pepper powder – 1 tbsp (while cooking)
• Lemon juice – 2 tbsp (while cooking)
• Corn starch (½ tbsp) with Water (2 tbsp) for slurry.

Directions:

Marinate the chicken with lemon juice, pepper, ginger garlic paste, and yoghurt (curd). Add oil to the pan, drop-in bay leaves, peppercorns, ginger, garlic, and saute for 1 minute. Now, add marinated chicken to the pan, and cook for 2-3 minutes, until the colour changes. Add green chillies, salt, and pepper powder, and cover the pan to let cook on simmer for 15-20 minutes. Add lemon juice, and slurry, made of cornstarch and water, to thicken the gravy. Hot off the flame, it’s ready to serve!

7. Ginger Peanut Paneer Curry

This protein-based mouth-watering curry has all the goodness of turmeric, ginger, pepper, cardamom, peanut butter, and leafy greens. The antiviral and antibacterial properties of ginger and the rest of the spices, combined with the protein power of Paneer make it a great combination to boost your immune system.

Ingredients:

• Firm tofu/paneer – 500 grams
• Olive oil – 3.5 tbsp
• Sea salt – ¾ tsp
• Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
• 1 Large onion – 200g, roughly chopped
• Garlic – 3 cloves, finely chopped
• Ginger root – Large thumb-size piece, 40g, grated
• Ground turmeric – 1 tsp
• Ground cumin – 1 tsp
• Ground cardamom – ⅛ tsp
• Cayenne pepper – ¼ tsp
• Ground black pepper – ¼ tsp
• Tin of diced tomatoes – 1 x 400g
• Natural peanut butter – 2 tbsp
• Vegetable stock – 375ml, 1.5 cups
• Spinach – 1 bunch, trimmed and shredded (or other leafy greens)
• Fresh coriander leaves (cilantro) and cooked rice, to serve.

Directions:

Toss your Paneer on a baking tray, with olive oil and salt. Bake for 30 minutes, till they reach a golden crisp. Fry some mustard seeds, onion, ginger, garlic, salt, and other spices in olive oil on a medium flame, till they get soft and fragrant. Add tomatoes and natural peanut butter, mix it well, and then pour in the vegetable stock. Cook for 10 minutes till it becomes a rich sauce. Add paneer and spinach, and cook for 2 minutes till they become soft and wilted. You can add additional salt pepper if required. Serve the hot curry topped with fresh coriander, and enjoy it with rice or roti.

8. Moong Dal

This simple and satiating lentil preparation with right doses of medicinal spices like ginger, garlic, turmeric, and cardamom makes it a super-tasty and immune-friendly dish.

Ingredients:

• Vegetable stock/ Bone broth – 6 Cups
• Green Moong beans – 500 grams
• Ground Cumin – 1 tbsp
• Ground Turmeric – 1 tbsp
• Ground coriander – 2 tsp
• Cardamom pods – 6 pods
• Fresh chilli for taste
• Ghee – 1 tbsp
• Onions – 4 large
• Garlic Cloves – 6
• Ginger root – 2 thumb-size pieces, diced
• Carrot – 4, large
• Celery sticks – 2 sticks
• Sea salt – 2 pinches
• Black pepper – 2 pinches
• Greens – Baby spinach, spinach, and Kale
• Lemon juice – 1 lemon

Directions:

Boil the broth in a saucepan, and add moong beans, then cook for 20 minutes or simmer on medium heat. Meanwhile, frythe spices till they emanate their fragrance. Add ghee to the pan and toss in onions, and spices and fry for 10 minutes. Add ginger and garlic and fry for five more minutes, over a gentle heat. Stir in carrots, celery,fried onion, ginger, and garlic mix to the moong beans. Add salt, pepper and continue cooking with the lid on for 15 more minutes on medium heat. Add more stock if necessary, to prevent burning. Add greens and finish it with lemon juice.

9. Smoothie with Carrot, Orange, and Ginger

This refreshing drink will jolt up your taste buds as well as your immunity. It’s an effortless drink to make.

Ingredients:

• Carrots – 4
• Orange Juice – 1 Glass
• Ginger – 1 tsp (finely chopped)
• Dates – 2

Directions:

Toss in some carrots, fresh orange juice, ginger, and some healthy dates for sweetening. If you want to make this smoothie in a completely different direction, instead of dates, you can add fresh turmeric, stevia powder, and cinnamon. This smoothie is a powerhouse of all the essential nutrients to fortify your immune system.

10. Herbal Tea

Starting your day with this herbal tea is one of the best ways to charge-up your body by introducing to it some of the healthiest ingredients in the world. These natural ingredients are the most effective when it comes to protecting you from viral and bacterial attacks.

Ingredients:

• Fennel Seeds- 1 tbsp
• Cardamom – 2
• Cinnamon – 50 grams
• Ginger – 1 tbsp (Finely Chopped)
• Lemongrass – 4 -5 strings
• Honey – 1 tbsp
• Water – 3 cups

Directions:

Just add fennel seeds, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, mint leaves, lemongrass, and honey to the water in a boiling pot. Let it boil on the simmer till the liquid reduces to 1 cup, to up the potency of the tea. Strain it into a cup, squeeze lemon juice just before consumption to keep the vitamin c intact. Your herbal tea is ready to go!

Conclusion

These are some of the recipes a little different from your typical meals. But, they carry with them all the goodness of those vitamins and minerals that boost your immune system. Introduce them to your diet to break the monotony of your dal-chawal and enjoy the taste and benefits they bring to you.
If you are looking for meal plans which keep you fit for the rest of your life, despite any health condition, download our app and book an appointment with our senior nutritionist.